A lack of safety equipment is preventing staff at the Library of Birmingham
from accessing books on the high shelves

How much does a ladder cost in Birmingham these days? In a scene that wouldn't be out of place in a Benny Hill sketch, it has emerged that reaching the books on high shelves at a state-of-the-art library in Birmingham has become something of a tall order for the librarians.

Despite opening seven months ago, the £188 million Library of Birmingham has been forced to admit that it has no means of reaching hundreds of books in their collection... because they are stacked too high. The library is still waiting to receive the correct equipment to enable staff to retrieve certain books in the storage area.

The library's director, Brian Gambles, said: "We fully understand how popular materials in the closed stack areas of the Library of Birmingham are and it is frustrating that we haven't yet been able to give our customers access to them.

"We had planned to introduce this service in the autumn, after the initial post-opening rush had settled a little, but because we're still awaiting delivery of equipment to enable staff to retrieve items from the storage stacks safely, we have had to delay this service.

"I'd like to apologise to our customers and ask that they bear with us – we hope to have the service available later this spring."

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It is a situation that has got Birmingham's bibliophiles hot under the collar, with Birmingham University historian George Demidowicz describing it as a "tragedy and a scandal".

"The library is great to gawp at but it is unfit for purpose," Demidowicz toldthe Birmingham Post. "They were warned this would happen."

At first glance, this story bears all the hallmarks of interference from those pesky people over at Health and Safety but a spokesman has denied this: "The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would like to point out that it appears bad planning and failure to purchase appropriate equipment is behind this story, not health and safety.

"Unfortunately, health and safety is often trotted out as an excuse for other misgivings and failings. We feel it has been used on this occasion to mask bad planning on the authority’s part and the people of Birmingham are being misled."

The Library of Birmingham was opened in September last year and houses over one million books. Designed by Dutch firm Macanoo, it was officially opened by Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting the rights of women in Pakistan.

"Books are precious," Yousafzai said at the opening. "Some books travel with you back centuries, others take you into the future. Some take you to the core of your heart and others take you into the universe." The rest, it seems, you just can't get hold of.